Dual-Mode Voltage Regulator Without External Compensation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Electronic systems face challenges in reducing power consumption during idle modes due to ongoing power leakage and the complexity of managing multiple supply domains, which increases size and requires large, area-consuming switches and external capacitors.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a power gating technique with two supply domains (VDD and virtual VDD) where the virtual VDD domain is directly connected to a higher power regulator, eliminating the need for a switch in series with the higher power gated digital logic, resulting in a smaller switch and reduced decoupling capacitance, allowing for a more compact design.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of energy
If multiple supply domains are used to reduce power in sleep mode, then power consumption is reduced, but device complexity and area increase due to robust switches and external capacitors
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the power supply into two distinct domains: a first supply domain connected to a low-power regulator and a second supply domain connected to a high-power regulator. This segmentation allows independent power management for different circuit blocks, enabling the system to reduce power consumption by activating only the necessary supply domain while maintaining manageable complexity through structured organization.
2Reliability
If robust switches are used to enable and disable separate supply domains, then power management reliability is improved, but area consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a virtual supply domain as an intermediary between the first and second supply domains. This virtual domain acts as a buffer that simplifies the switching mechanism, allowing supply domain transitions without requiring large, area-consuming robust switches. The virtual domain mediates the power transfer, maintaining reliability while reducing the area footprint of the switching infrastructure.
3Stability of the object's composition
If external capacitors are added to filter supply domains, then power supply stability is improved, but device size increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a nested power supply architecture where the virtual supply domain is nested within the overall power distribution network, and the first and second supply domains are nested at different hierarchical levels. This nesting allows the system to achieve supply voltage stability through the hierarchical structure itself, eliminating the need for additional external capacitors and reducing the overall device size while maintaining stability.
Data Source
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AI summary
The present subject matter relates to an electronic system (fig. 2) comprising gated circuitry (104), a first regulator circuit (HP-208) directly coupled to the gated circuitry (104), always-on circuitry (202), a second regulator circuit (LP-210) directly coupled to the always-on circuitry (202), and a switch circuit (206) coupled between an output of the first regulator circuit (HP_208) and an output of the second regulator circuit (LP-210). The always-on circuitry (202) includes control logic configured to activate the second regulator circuit (LP-210) and deactivate the first regulator circuit (HP-208) and the switch circuit (206) in a sleep mode and activate the first regulator circuit (HP-208) and the switch circuit (206) in an active mode.